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Searching for Charleston homes for sale

To get meaningful results when searching for Charleston homes for sale, it's best to narrow your search criteria. Above is a good example. There are currently 3371 properties for sale between $200,000 and $400,000 in the Charleston real estate market. While many buyers like to see as many homes as possible to insure that they make the best buying decision possible, it's unlikely they will be able to see all these homes and most of the homes won't really be what you're looking for.

And of course, very few real estate agents will go along for that ride. Wink

Now, if you are really looking for a new or newer single family detached home priced between $289,900 and $330,000 with a minimum of 3 bedrooms with the master down and at least 1900 square feet and a 2 car garage or larger, you can narrow the results down to a more manageable 100 homes.

 

One of the funny things about search parameters is that a great house might be available but it could be 1890 square feet and it wouldn't have displayed in the above search results. If you want a home that is over 2000 square feet, start your range below your minimum. Similarly, many homes are priced with what I like to call Wal-Mart pricing so as to appear less expensive, $289,900 isn't really a lot less expensive than $290,000 but it appears to be so it's important to start the pricing search $100 less than the low end of your range or you'll miss quite a few nice homes.

Whether you are planning on moving to the Charleston area for a job relocation, just wanting to relocate to the Charleston area, wanting to retire to Charleston or buy a second home in the Charleston area, in order to get a sense of the Charleston real estate market, listing alerts sent by email of all new properties that come on the market are a great way to familiarize yourself with the Charleston housing market.

Click here to start receiving listing alerts for Charleston homes for sale. 

Published Monday, May 12, 2008 7:32 AM by Howard Arnoff

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# re: Searching for Charleston homes for sale

I really wish someone would create a Charleston MLS Google Earth (or MS Live) mashup. I want to be able to look (and sort) at a map and see what is for sale...and where.  Trulia kind of does this, but the information seems incomplete.

RedFin has a great example of this on there website...but they have the luxury of owning their data, which is not MLS.

Monday, May 12, 2008 12:54 PM by Claude Daigle

# re: Searching for Charleston homes for sale

Claude, as it happens, I'm looking into a map based search.

You are absolutely right, the trulias, zillows and many others have beautiful sites but incomplete data. Who knows what redfin is doing other than losing money and changing their marketing plan to become more mainstream in order to make a profit.

I currently offer ok search with total data directly from the Charleston MLS. I'd rather have the data but beautiful would be a plus and I think map based is the future.

I can get map based with complete data but it will have limitations on the search parameters and for $100 per month, I'm not sure I want to compromise.

Monday, May 12, 2008 3:56 PM by Howard Arnoff

# re: Searching for Charleston homes for sale

I would love to see RedFin succeed but its an MLS world and they don't do MLS.  There is only one place in the US where MLS does not rule and that is NYC.  

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:33 PM by Claude Daigle

# re: Searching for Charleston homes for sale

Claude, I believe you're incorrect. They are a licensed real estate company and they belong to the various local MLS boards where they operate.

Glenn Kelman likes to take the "renegade" pose but he desperately needs the MLS system. If he can't get paid for bringing a buyer, redfin has no income.

As to the flat fee listing, I'd do that all day long except that I have ethics. In my real estate world, if I take a listing that doesn't sell, I don't get paid.  

Their basic problem is that their overhead is higher than their income. When you give back commission in exchange for volume, you have to have volume. They don't.

Now they have to cut back on service, not exactly a recipe to increase volume.  

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:39 PM by Howard Arnoff

# re: Searching for Charleston homes for sale

Good article about this exact subject in today's NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/technology/12ecom.html?em&ex=1210910400&en=f2bca9ad987b9d07&ei=5087%0A

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:56 AM by Claude Daigle

# re: Searching for Charleston homes for sale

Claude, see, I'm wrong once in a while too ;)

But I've always "syndicated" my listing to trulia, zillow, google base and others because my job is to sell the listing for my client and I want the greatest exposure.

Still, back to the original point, as the NY Times article mentioned, those sites aren't getting the full picture of available proprerties.

And you might say, well, the MLS doesn't display FSBO's but they do when FSBO's pay agents a flat fee for that and have an offer of compensation for the selling agent.

And as to redfin, they cannot make money with their current business plan and they've started to realize that.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:36 AM by Howard Arnoff

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